Washington, July 24 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has emphasised that he did not make any concessions to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a week after their controversial summit in Helsinki.
“When you hear the Fake News talking negatively about my meeting with President Putin, and all that I gave up, remember, I gave up NOTHING, we merely talked about future benefits for both countries,” Trump tweeted on Monday, Efe news reported.
“Also, we got along very well, which is a good thing, except for the Corrupt Media!” the President added in the same tweet, referring to himself and Putin.
Trump received a landslide of criticism in the US – from Democrats and some Republicans — after the Helsinki summit last week in which he stated that he believed Putin’s denial of Kremlin interference in the 2016 US presidential vote.
Later, the President backtracked by affirming that he had “misspoken” and said he believed the reports of the US intelligence agencies, including the FBI and the CIA, that Moscow tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election in which he defeated his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
However, a few days later, US public opinion moved against Trump again when the news emerged that he had invited Putin to a second summit in Washington in the autumn.
That invitation opens up the possibility that the Russian leader may visit Washington just before or after the US mid-term elections, scheduled for November 6, despite fears that Russian intelligence agencies are trying — or may try — to interfere in those contests, as they presumably did in 2016.
–IANS<br>pgh/
Source: IANS
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